History And Geographical Location Of Turkey example essay topic

The Turkish Republic was established in 1923, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Empire had been slowly declining for several centuries, this can be attributed to its inability to keep up scientifically and the soc ail and political wars. Finally the Lausanne Peace Treaty of July 24, 1923 established the international status and boundaries of the new country. The Republic of Turkey was formally declared on October 29, 1923.

It immediately started on a course of modernization in all walks of life. Turkey would base its political and legal systems on the modern secular models as well as strengthening its political relations with the West to reach its goals as a new republic. The goals as expressed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the nationalist movement and first president of the Turkish Republic, were 'to reach the level of contemporary civilization'. To achieve these goals, a for foreign relations was created; as Ataturk said, 'Peace at home, Peace in the world. ' This has not been and easy task, the history and geographical location of Turkey. It lies at a 'crossroads' where the two large continents of Europe and Asia meet.

This unique location gives Turkey a very diverse populations, Balkan, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Caucasian and Asian identities. This has highly influenced its Foreign Policy. Its primary objective is in short to develop friendly relations with all countries, most particularly neighboring countries. Not only does Turkey have to deal with complex foreign policy, but its large land area needs much internal governing.

The total area of Turkey inclusive of all its lakes is approximately 814,578 square kilometers. 790,200 are located in asia and 24,378 are located in Europe. Although Turkey is situated in a geographical location where climatic conditions are quite temperate, the diverse landscape, and the existence of the mountains that run parallel to the coasts, there are significant differences in climatic conditions from one region to the other. While the coastal areas enjoy milder climates, the inland Anatolian plateau experiences extremes of hot summers and cold winters with limited rainfall.

Turkey has been divided up into seven different regions, the Black Sea Region, the Marmara Region, th Aegean, The Mediterranean, Central Anatolia, The East and Southeast Anatolia regions. Because of its geographical location the mainland of Anatolia has always found favour throughout history, and is the birthplace of many great civilizations. It has also been prominent as a centre of commerce because of its land connections to three continents and the sea surrounding it on three sides. Although the Anatolia region has been a main center of commerce, Turkish commerce itself has been strong. Turkey has a very diverse economy with a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with a traditional agriculture sector that accounts for 40% of its employment. The private sector of Turkey's economy is strong and growing rapidly, although the state plays a major role in the basic industry, banking, transport, and communications, but the strongest industry is the textile and clothing industry, which is almost completely in private hands.

Recently the economic status of the country has been set by erratic economic growth as well as serious imbalances. The GNP growth of Turkey has exceeded 6% in many years, but this expansion has been interrupted by sharp declines in output in 2001. Also inflation in recent years has been in the high double-digit range, falling to 11.3% only in 2004. Perhaps it is because of these problems direct fore gin investment in Turkey remains low, less than one billion dollars annually. As Turkey moves on and its economy continues to improve as of 2003, maybe because of strong financial support from the IMF, a major political and economic issues developed, weather or not Turkey will become a me member of the EU. 98% of the Turkish population is Moslem.

Although, everyone in Turkey has the freedom of religion and belief, under no circumstances can anyone be forced to participate in religious ceremonies or rites against their will and no bal me can be attached to anyone because of their beliefs. However, this was not always so, secularism had ro be slowly introduced. In the first phase the abolition of the Caliphate and the Ministry of the Sheri a abd Pious Foundations on March 4, 1942. Next was the introduction of separate educational and judicial systems, the hat reform, were instituted. Thirdly was the closure of dervish d retreats and religious sects, the acceptance of Sunday as weekend holiday rather that the Moslem friday and the adoption of the western calendar. The final step was the adoption of the principle of secularism in the Constitution on February 5, 1937.

Turkish is a very ancient language that possesses a wealth of vocabulary. It Belongs to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages, and thus is closely related to Mongolian, Manchu-Tungus, Korean and even Japanese. The Turkish Language is not only restricted to Turkey it is spread over a large geographical area in Europe and Asia, thus making it the sixth most widely spoken language in the world. The language in general maybe widely spoken but there are also many different dialects of Turkish. It is spoken ins the Azeri, the Turkmen, the Tartar, the Uzbek, the Baskurti, the No gay, the Kyrgyz, the Kazakh, the Yakut i, the Cuevas and other not so popular dialects.

The Turkish Culture and has spread farther than just its neighboring countries. Turkey is a very young country and is still developing. As it to grow larger its economic and political power will grow and will become more recognized.